INFLUENCE OF PARENTAL ATTITUDE ON STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN UPPER BASIC SCHOOLS IN MAKURDI LOCAL GOVERNMENT

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the study

The role that parents play in the upbringing of a child is very important. Children look up-to their parents for guidance, protection and motivation to live a great life. One of the best ways to achieve wholesome qualities of education is the partnership of parents and teachers in injecting valuable skills, conduct, and knowledge to the students (Dautscher & Ibe, 2003). All over the world parents play a vital role in the education of their child, whatever child’s age. If parents pay attention to their children, they make more scholastic achievements than those who are ignored.

Parents’ attitude towards education influences their involvement in education matters. Parental involvement in education is the participation of parents in regular meaningful communication that involves student academic learning and other school activities including ensuring that parents play an integral role in assisting their child’s learning at home and at school (Starkey & Kleir, 2000). According to Rao (1991), there is need to investigate aspects of poor parental involvement that affects academic performance since day students spent significant time with parents as well as teachers. The input of parent’s involvement on the individual student is of great significance because students benefit a great deal if school and home complement each other in their education and socialization.

There are various parental attitude which have been a major challenge especially in the United States. This is especially evident in the Latino race. The educational plight of Latino students in the United States is an increasing concern given the low achievement and attainment status of this population (Kuperminc, Darnell and Alvarez-Jimenez, 2008). Although many risk factors associated with underachievement are difficult to alter, participation of parents in education has been shown to positively impact learning outcomes. Furthermore Latino parents have higher educational aspirations for their children but are less involved at home and school than non-Latino white parents (Kuperminc, Darnell and Alvarez-Jimenez, 2008).

The attitude of parents are conceptualized as to affect the academic performance of their children. One of the attitude such as family backgrounds can contribute to either shaping or destroying their performance. According to an observation made by Pinantoan (2013), students with two parents operating in supportive roles are 52 percent more likely to enjoy school and get good marks than students whose parents are disengaged with what’s going on at school. This is especially the case during the earliest years of schooling, in Kindergarten through the 5th grade, when students with active parents are almost twice as likely to succeed. Once students enter middle school, the effect diminishes slightly possibly because they are maturing during this time but there is still a 22 percent difference.

In Africa, education achievement is one of the most important aspects of the society. This is because in the developing nations academic achievement is one of the keys to development and growth of both the individual and the society. Thus, the attitude portrayed by parents in the education of their children is important in ensuring that the students focus on their studies and are able to have good academic performance. In Ghana for instance, the attitude of parents or guardians towards learning of children is associated positively with students’ performance in school (Chowa, Ansong and Osei-Akoto, 2012).

According to Amukowa and Karue (2013) among the key causes of poor performance in education, attitude such as parental involvement and the family background have a major impact on student’s academic achievement. Most research has dwelled on poor facilities and finances as among the key causes of poor academic performance among many students in Upper Basic Schools in Nigeria. In Nigeria the attitude of parents in the learning process of their children has generally been limited to financial support. Once the fee is paid most parents don’t feel obliged to take any further actions in terms of their children’s education. Rather they live the burden to the teachers who they believe they pay enough to take care of their children. Therefore with the numerous advantages that accrue from the involvement of parents in the education, it is imperative that this study be carried out on the attitude of parents in improving academic performance of students in Upper Basic Schools.

It can also be recognized that there are various parental attitude which influence greatly how children get to interact with their friends in the outside world. One of the key attitude as observed by Khasakhala et. al., (2013) include the parenting behavior. The parenting characteristic has been observed as to largely influence the prevalence of depression among youths attending general health facilities and those in secondary schools (Weissman, Wickramaratne, Nomura, Warner, Verdeli, Pilowsky, Grillon and Bruder, 2005). This is an indication that indeed parental attitude need to be effectively looked into and how it affects the academic performance of students.

1.2 Statement of problem

Parents in Makurdi Local Government are not that different as compared to the parents in any other region in the country. Their impact on children’s growth can not be underrated. Being an arid area and the main economic activity being pastoralist, parents are characterized by unstable activities such as shifting from one region to the other in search of pasture for animals, polygamy and illiteracy. All these may pose a critical challenge on the overall education of students in the region. Moreover, it can be noted that in the area, the performance of students in schools is not that up-to-standards. This is whereby only a few of the students from this area receive the opportunity to further their education in the higher institutions of learning (Nungari, 2005). Moreover, there are a number of more recent studies (Kashu, 2014; Magoma, 2014) which have indicated that the performance of students in the region have not been that impressive. For instance, Kashu indicated that school facilities affected the performance of students whereas that by Magoma noted that there were certain leadership issues which contributed to the negative performance among students in region. However, none has been able to investigate on how exactly the parental attitude affect the performance of students.

On the other hand, there are quite a number of studies (Vukovic & Roberts, 2013;

Sun and Li, 2011; Akomolafe and Olorunfemi-Olabisi, 2011; Bakker, 2007; Smits & Gündüz-Hogör, 2006; Shim, Felner and Shim, 2000) which have been

reviewed in the areas of parental attitude affecting students’ performance. However, most of these studies have had their own limitations. This is whereby some have been carried out in other countries outside Nigeria. Moreover, most of them were wider in scope and thus the information provided may be too general. However, no adequate studies have been carried out to investigate the influence of parental attitude on the academic performance of students in Nigeria and with specific reference to Makurdi Local Government, Benue State. Hence, there was need for this study to be carried out to investigate on the influence of parental attitude on students’ academic performance in Upper Basic Schools in Makurdi Local Government, Benue State.

1.3 Purpose of the study

The purpose of this study was to find out how parental attitude influence students academic performance in Upper Basic Schools in Makurdi Local Government, Benue State Nigeria.

1.4 Objectives of the study

The study was guided by the following research objectives:

1. To determine how the education level of parents influences the academic performance of students in Upper Basic Schools in Makurdi Local Government, Benue State.

2. To examine the influence of parents’ attitude to education on the academic performance of students in Upper Basic Schools in Makurdi Local Government, Benue State.

3. To determine how parents’ economic status affects the performance of students in Upper Basic Schools in Makurdi Local Government, Benue State.

4. To establish the extent to which family type affect the academic performance of the students in Upper Basic Schools in Makurdi Local Government,

Benue State.

1.5 Research questions

The study was guided by the following research questions:

1. How does the education level of parents influence the academic performance of students in Upper Basic Schools in Makurdi Local Government,

Benue State?

2. How does parent’s attitude to education influence the academic performance of students in Upper Basic Schools in Makurdi Local Government, Benue State?

3. What is the effect of parents’ economic status in the performance of students

in Upper Basic Schools in Makurdi Local Government, Benue State?

4. To what extent does the family type affect academic performance of students in Upper Basic Schools in Makurdi Local Government, Benue State?

1.6 Significance of the study

The study would be of significance in the following ways;

The school management teams are the key beneficiaries of this study as they may have an understanding of parental attitude which may affect the overall academic performance of their students.

The students would benefit from this study as parents may be guided to help them improve on their academic achievement. Additionally, the policy makers may be in a position to identify the key critical areas which need review so as to encourage parents in improving the academic performance of their students.

Through the findings of this study, parents would gain an insight on the various attitude they possess which may influence the performance of their children in the region. Moreover, the recommendations given would also help them in best actualizing their various attitude for maximum promotion of their children’s academic performance. The study would contribute to the growing mass of knowledge on the areas of parental attitude and its influence on the academic performance of students in schools. It would contribute knowledge on how the educational level, economic background, attitude and family structure influence the performance of students in schools.

1.7 Limitation of the study

One of the limitations that was encountered in this study was lack of cooperation among the respondents. Some of the respondents feared to disclose some critical information concerning the performance of their schools and especially those which were not doing well. As such, to counter this limitation, the researcher explained to the respondents that the research was mainly for academic purpose and that their names or those of their schools would remain anonymous.

1.8 Delimitation of the study

This study generally focused on the influence of parental attitude on students’ academic performance in Upper Basic Schools. Moreover, the study generally revolved around the following parental attitude: educational level, attitude, economic status and family structure. The target population for this study consisted of principals, PTA members and students. These respondents were considered as to being in a position in providing adequate and relevant information concerning the area under study. Geographically, this study was delimited to Upper Basic Schools in Makurdi Local Government, Benue State.

1.9 Assumptions of the study

This study was based on the assumptions that:

1. The participants were willing to participate in the study. Their cooperation to the study made it much easier for the research to obtain not only adequate but also quality data that helped in realizing the key objective of this study which was to find out the attitude of the parents in improving the academic performance of students in secondary schools.

1.10 Definition of significant terms

Attitude is the way a person think and feels about something. It is normally shown in the way a person behaves.

Economic status refers to the financial position or level of wealth among the parents.

Educational level is the level of formal knowledge acquired by the parents

Family type refers to the structure or composition of families.

Influence refers to the power to make other people agree with your opinions or do what you want.

Parental Characteristic refers to the attributes within the parents’ circle that affect the learning of students. These attitude as investigated in this study include family type, educational level, attitude and economic status.

Performance is a way of success and is shown by how well somebody do something

Public schools refers to those institutions maintained or assisted using public funds of the government and local authority

Secondary school refers to the post primary level of education and normally covers a duration of four years that is from Form One to Form Four.

1.11 Organization of the study

Chapter one of this study contains the background to the problem, statement of the problem, objective of the study, research questions, significance of the study, limitations of the study, delimitations of the study, definition of significant terms, and organization of the study. Chapter two covers the literature review of the related areas under study. The chapter is presented based on the following sections: influence of family type on students’ academic performance, effect of parental economic status on the performance of students, the influence of parental attitude to education on the academic performance of students, influence of parents’ education level on academic performance of students, theoretical, conceptual framework and summary of literature review. Chapter three contains the research methodology. It comprises of research design, target population, sample size and sampling procedures, description of instruments, validity and reliability of research instruments, data collection and data analysis procedures. Chapter four comprises data analysis, presentation and discussion of the findings. The chapter is presented based on the following subsections: introduction, background information of the respondents, influence of parental level of education on students academic performance, influence of parent’s attitude to education on performance of students in schools, influence of parents’ economic status on performance of students in schools and the extent to which family type affect academic performance of the students. Chapter five which is the last chapter in this study presents the summary of the study, conclusions and recommendations of this study and suggestions for further study.